Ohio’s greatness resides in its people, not its Statehouse politicians.

Over our state’s 220-year history, its sturdy people many times have been betrayed by their elected lawmakers. Then they went to work to set things straight.

The worst period of betrayal began in the 1880s and 1890s. Ohio was being transformed from an agrarian society into an industrial dynamo. At the start of the Civil War, nearly five times as many Ohioans lived on farms as in cities. By 1910, with Ohio’s population nearing 5 million, more than half lived in cities.

Between 1900 and 1930, Warren’s population nearly quintupled, from 8,529 to 41,062.

In turn-of-the-century Ohio, industrialization, immigration, and urbanization fueled the rise of big-city political machines. Business tycoons built giant monopolies and trusts in banking, oil, railroads and utilities.

To avoid government regulation, tycoons were willing to bankroll political bosses and their hand-picked candidates. Without prohibitions on corporate cash in politics, money bought officeholder loyalty. Many officeholders were on corporate payrolls.

The worsening stench of corruption spawned reformers in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Thus dawned the Progressive Era. Reform wings of both parties agitated for citizen participation in government, consumer protection, ending child labor, civil service reform, regulation of big business and monopolies, recognition of labor unions, safe working conditions, and women’s suffrage.

On Nov. 8, 1910, this relentless spirit of reform produced an astounding election result. More than 9 in 10 Ohio voters supported a call for a state constitutional convention.

On Nov. 7, 1911, Ohioans elected 119 delegates — all on nonpartisan ballots — to attend a constitutional convention at the Statehouse to begin setting things straight. Most delegates were lawyers, farmers, bankers, labor leaders, educators and other leaders known and respected in their hometowns. William B. Kilpatrick, a lawyer and four-term mayor of Warren, was among them.

The 1912 constitutional convention and the amendments it produced represent the proudest period of our state’s experiment in democracy. In the special election of Sept. 3, 1912, Ohioans approved 34 of 42 amendments — by simple majority vote — to vastly improve governance in their state. Of those 34 measures, 19 did not reach 60 percent of the vote.

Among the most important reforms were civil service standards (59.9 percent), municipal home rule (58.3 percent) and the initiative and referendum (57.5 percent).

Ohioans have been judicious in using the initiative. In 1933, they adopted an amendment establishing a 10-mill limit on unvoted property taxes. In 1949, they eliminated straight-ticket voting. More recently, in 2006, Ohioans raised the state minimum wage and pegged it to inflation.

Over the decades, Ohioans have approved only 19 of 71 amendments proposed via the citizen initiative — a record of careful discernment.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s proposal to require all future proposed amendments to obtain 60 percent of the vote to win passage ignores — and insults — Ohioans’ record of good judgment. It would debilitate Ohioans’ 111-year-old right to check Statehouse pols. It would further empower the monied interests and the politicians they control.

Elitist and extreme right-wing power brokers, such as Americans for Prosperity (the Koch brothers), have been financing similar 60 percent ballot schemes across the country.

Fortunately, most have failed. On June 7, 2022, South Dakota voters demolished such an assault on their voting rights, 33-67. And on Nov. 8, 2022, Arkansas voters rejected a similar proposal, 41-59.

The timing of the LaRose proposal could not be more disrespectful to Ohio voters — just as the largest Statehouse bribery scandal in Ohio history unfolds in a federal courtroom in Cincinnati.

Statehouse chicanery never disappears. The initiative, conceived in 1912 by Ohio reformers to provide citizens the power to hold Statehouse pols accountable, is as essential today as it was in 1912. It is the most powerful tool ordinary citizens have for rooting out corruption and making things right.

Ordinary Ohioans, with common sense and love of their state, should smash this elitist effort to dilute their power.

Mike Curtin is a former Columbus Dispatch editor and associate publisher, two-term state lawmaker and former member of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.